IWM holds an unrivalled collection of twentieth and twenty-first century British art, including some of the most significant artists exploring war and conflict today.

Explore the ways in which art can prompt us to think more deeply about current events, their immediate impact and their long-term implications. Hear from the artists themselves and discover what motivates people to create art about conflict.

Wars During My Lifetime 1982-2012
Callanan is an artist with an ongoing interest in the individual’s place within wider systems. In this newspaper he lists, in order, all the wars that have taken place during his lifetime. Since making this work he has made additional editions of the work with updated lists including subsequent conflicts. Through this simple gesture he reinstates the place of the individual within the broader sweep of history, using his own lifetime as a unit with which to measure historical events. On reading the list, some of the conflicts are immediately recognisable, while others have largely passed under the Western media’s radar.

As part of the exhibition, a Town Crier proclaimed Wars During My Lifetime in and around the Museum on 13 October 2013, here is a full audio recording:

Artist Martin John Callanan, whose work features in IWM North’s latest exhibition, brings a special performance to the museum – featuring a town crier.

Set against the backdrop of Daniel Libeskind’s award-winning building, representing a globe shattered by conflict, expect to be led around the museum while a town crier reads aloud the thought-provoking listings of wars that have occurred during the artist Martin John Callanan’s lifetime. Callanan’s work, Wars During My Lifetime, is a newspaper listing that features in the new exhibition Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War. It is a fascinating – and rapidly expanding – document that makes no comment but brings the list to our attention. This piece is performed live for the first time since its original commission for Whitstable Biennale in 2012.